Dear Don,

having a number of books and photographs on VII's, I do not recall having seen ever a picture of a boat without a net cutter on deck, showing one underneath. It could be possible however that on some boats, the deck one was removed after launch, hence showing still a net cutter on the hull, or that the hull one was already mounted while under construction, when the change to remove the deck one was passed on to the builder (but a photo showing this would be a ' rare' one indeed).
In case of U96, a photo taken during the launch would resolve this question I would say; I would assume that when no cutter was seen on deck, then neither would there be one on the hull itself. I' ll check whether I have somewhere a launch picture of U96.

best regards,
Gerard HERMANS, Merksem (Antwerp), Belgium.